Urban Political Machines

1
Urban Political Machines their Decline

• Extent
• Reform
• Other Forces
• Impact

2
HAVE URBAN POLITICAL MACHINES REALLY DISAPPEARED?

• Four elements of machines (in addition to
  patronage)
• Four changes in the practice of machine politics

3
Four Elements of Machines (in addition to
patronage or material rewards)

• Disciplined hierarchy led by single boss
• Party controls nomination to public office
• Party leadership does not hold public office
• Loyalty maintained by a mixture of
  non-ideological and psychic rewards

4
Tammany Hall Politics revolves around boss
Richard Croker (1889)
5
Four Changes in Practices of Machine Politics

• Racial divisions fracture hierarchy
• Patronage less important
• New immigrants less dependent on machines
• New institutions take functions of central city
  machines

6
DECLINE OF MACHINE POLITICS

• EXTENT
• REFORM
• OTHER FORCES
• IMPACT

7
Reforming the Machines Out of Business

• Social dimensions of Reformers
• Programs of structural reforms

8
Reformers and Bosses Social Dimensions

• View of social reformers as morning glories
• Conflicts between reformers and bosses
• Immigrants looked on politics from personal
  perspective
• Upper-middle class reformers looked on politics
  as arena to realize broad moral principles
• Differences in ethos public regarding vs private
  regarding
• Social Reformers
• Concern with abuses of capitalist system
• Example (Hazen Pingree Detroit)

9
Goals/Programs of Structural Reformers

• Goal efficiency (as contrasted with
  anti-capitalism of reformers
• Example (Grover Cleveland Buffalo)
• Core programs
• Merit appointments
• Privatization

10
Notable Innovations (electoral machinery) of the
Urban Structural Reformers

• Direct primaries
• At-large elections
• Short ballot
• Non-partisan elections

11
DECLINE OF MACHINE POLITICS

• EXTENT
• REFORM
• OTHER FORCES
• IMPACT

12
Other Forces and the Decline of Machines

• Federal government
• Demography

13
Federal Government and Decline of the Urban
Political Machines

• Welfare politics empowers the federal government
• Magnitude of resources involved beyond the
  capabilities of municipalities
• thought of as a legal right
• Infrastructure development favors a national
  focus
• Equity between cities/regions
• Again, magnitude of resources problem
• Courts

14
Demographics and the Decline of Urban Political
Machines

• Minority migration pressures machines to become
  more inclusive
• Westward drift increases proportion of population
  in urban areas lacking machine tradition
• Rise of suburbia
• Lack machine tradition
• Suburbanites focus on their careers rather than
  on patronage from machines

15
Decline of the Urban Machine

• EXTENT
• REFORM
• OTHER FORCES
• IMPACT

16
Impact of the Urban Political Machines Decline
Institutions

• Kinds of cities that favor reform style of
  government
• Strong mayor (Chicago)
• Council manager (Dallas/San Diego)
• Commission (Galveston, Texas)

17
Other Impacts of the Urban Political Machines
Decline

• Class bias of political reform
• Fragmentation and the decrease of accountability